George Gascoigne

George Gascoigne (1535-7 October 1577) was an English poet and soldier during the English Renaissance.

Biography
George Gascoigne was born in Cardington, Bedfordshire, England in 1535. He was the son of a respectable country gentleman, and he lived a turbulent life; he squandered his inheritance in an attempt to cut a figure at court, and he also failed as a lawyer and as a soldier in the Dutch Revolt. He perenially sought occupation and patronage, and he became a writer, writing courtly entertainments, plays, literary criticism, moral tracts, a hunting treatise, military reportage, prose fiction, and many poems, winning him considerable esteem. However, some of his work was criticized as obscene, and he died in financial straits in 1577.